To: Wendy Stephen, Q.C.
From: Gail Davidson, Executive Director, LRWC
Re: International Association of Prosecutors (IAP) Executive Committee member Dr. Ali bin Fadhel Al-Buainain
Date: April 17, 2013
It has come to our attention that Dr Ali bin Fadhel Al-Buainain, the Attorney General of Bahrain, is a member of the Executive Committee of the International Association of Prosecutors (IPA). This is cause for concern, given the Report on Bahrain’s Attorney General Dr. Ali bin Fadhel Al-Buainain and his position in the International Association of Prosecutors,1 (copy enclosed). The Ceartas report concludes that Dr. Ali bin Fadhel Al-Buaninain, as the Attorney General of Bahrain, authorized and/or failed to supervise and prevent prosecutions that violated Bahrain’s international law obligations and IPA standards. These extra-legal prosecutions have resulted in further wrongful prosecutions and in ongoing grave human rights violations for those prosecuted.
The Ceartas report documents a pattern of prosecutions in breach of minimum due process and fair trial standards and of rights to freedom from torture and freedoms of expression, opinion, association, and assembly: rights recognized by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention against Torture and other international instruments. The Ceartas report also alleges that the Attorney General failed or refused to effectively prevent torture and to ensure the investigation and remediation of credible torture complaints, including instances of torture identified by the November 2011 Report of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BCIC).2
The IAP has played an important role over the past 14 years in promoting universal adherence by prosecutors and Attorneys General to international human rights and ethical prosecution laws and standards. In view of the allegations of grave, persistent and unremedied human rights abuses chronicled in both the Ceartas and BCIC reports, the continuation of Dr Ali bin Fadhel Al-Buainain as a member of the Executive Committee, puts the reputation of the IAP at risk.
LRWC calls on you to endorse the complaint made by IAP member Toby Cadman Q.C. through the IAP Complaint Protocol, and thereby allow the IAP to conduct a formal investigation of the allegations. The IAP investigation must, of course, be conducted in strict compliance with international standards so as to fully respect and ensure the right of Dr. Ali bin Fadhel Al-Buainain to make full answer and defense to the complaint.
We look forward to hearing from you.
1 Ceartas-Irish Lawyers for Human Rights, Report on Bahrain’s Attorney General Dr. Ali bin Fadhel Al-Buainain and his position in the International Association of Prosecutors, April 2013.
2 Report of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry, 23 November 2011. Members of BICI: Professor M. Cherif Bassiouni, Chair and Commissioners Judge Philippe Kirsch Q.C., Professor Sir Nigel Simon Rodley KBE, Dr. Mahnoush H. Arsanjani and Dr. Badria A. Al-Awadhi.
